Lucky at last, now Rafa can look up!
Perez punishes Watford as Newcastle climb out of the relegation zone
RAFA BENITEZ had grumbled about Newcastle United’s luck, or lack of it, during the entirety of a 10-match winless start which ranked as the worst in the club’s history. Here, finally, was some good fortune for the manager to savour, and it arrived in the perverse form of three injuries.
Just six minutes separated the departure of Yoshinori Muto, Jamaal Lascelles and Jonjo Shelvey. On came three replacements who would prove the match-winner, creator and star man.
Ayoze Perez was the scorer, flashing home a header from Ki Sungyueng’s ferocious free-kick on 65 minutes, while defender Fabian Schar was the best player on the park in the second half, so aggressive was he in dragging the team forward in search of a victory which sees them scramble from the bottom three.
Benitez’s substitutions had changed the game. That he had bemoaned his misfortune before being forced into each of them was forgotten on full time.
‘All three of the players made a contribution,’ said the Spaniard, ‘so credit to them. They helped the team keep the intensity, and with Perez’s goal and Ki with the freekick, they made the difference.
‘The three of them gave us something different and, in a difficult game, we maybe needed this.’
Newcastle’s supporters had listened to Benitez and, after a week in which Lascelles had stirred anger after calling unpopular owner Mike Ashley a ‘nice guy’, they did not boo the captain.
They did, however, jeer the introduction of Perez, a player who splits opinion in these parts. There are those who think he is poor, and those who argue who is very poor.
His celebration, then, was understandably muted as he placed fingers in both ears, a pointed response to the doubters.
It brought expiry to a goal drought of five hours, although that had looked certain to extend to nearer six after a first half in which Watford dominated.
Indeed, so superior were the visitors that the game wore the look of a senior side taking on their Under 23s. ‘If you don’t score, if you don’t kill the game when you have chances to do it, something like this can happen,’ reflected Watford manager Javi Gracia.
While Newcastle had been ponderous and predictable in possession, Watford had a pace and purpose about their play. It was a mystery to all inside the stadium how the first half expired with the score goalless, Adrian Mariappa and Gerard Deulofeu firing wide the best of the Hornets’ chances from close range.
Gracia had watched each of Newcastle’s previous 10 games on DVD, a masochistic exercise given how low on entertainment and quality they have been. But what he saw in the second half was something entirely different.
Perez replaced calf-injury victim Muto in first-half injury time and, come the 51st minute, Shelvey and Lascelles had also retired wounded. Perhaps Benitez will consider making changes earlier the next time his side are toiling as they were here.
Switzerland centre-back Schar, though, was the pick of the bunch, bullying Watford’s front line out of possession and springing attacks with an urgency absent in the opening 45 minutes.
The fans responded to their farfrom-neutral Swiss as he invaded enemy territory and St James’ was already raucous when their side won a free-kick on the angle of the penalty area.
Ki whipped in with pace and Perez met the most inviting of deliveries with a sublime header for his first of the season.
‘The players are giving everything,’ sounded Benitez. ‘We are making mistakes, starting from me, but still we are trying our best.
‘The fans appreciate that. You could see that even in the worst situations, they were still behind the team. Now, we have to enjoy it and relax a little bit.’
Not that Benitez could relax during the final stages as Kenedy stole the ball from the toe of Wat- ford striker Andre Gray inside the six-yard area — preventing a certain goal — and Stefano Okaka blazed over from the same patch of grass in injury time.
For once this season the breaks went with Newcastle, and none more so than the injuries to three of their own.